How Mobile Recruiting Can Increase Your Hiring Success

Mobile recruiting is one of the most effective strategies recruiters can use to succeed in the current labor market. Every recruiter can attest to the fact that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find talent; there are more open positions than qualified job seekers.

In recent years, mobile recruiting has emerged as an important function within the process, and it’s imperative that recruiters understand why. Let’s take a look.

Decreasing Your Time-to-Fill

One of the best reasons to include mobile in your recruiting strategy is to improve your time-to-fill metrics. When candidates don’t have to wait to read a job description on a laptop because the posting is mobile-friendly, and when they have the option to immediately apply via their phone, they’re more likely to take action. If they have to wait until they get home in the evening or make time on the weekend to apply and return emails, the process will take much longer. If you miss the first opportunity to engage a candidate, they may lose interest or even forget about the job.

Mobile-optimized applications, push notifications, and automated messaging systems can help reduce the time it takes for an applicant to move through the process. Some recruiting teams have even incorporated their pre-interview questions into a text format that they can deliver before the phone screen or first face-to-face interview.

Meeting Candidates Where They Are

According todata provided by Pew Research Center, 26 percent of adult American smartphone users have used their phone at some point in the process of finding a new job. More and more, employers are using demographic data to target their ideal candidates and reach them where they are through the brands they use and places they frequent. Smartphone users are of all ages and demographics; it’s your job as an employer to create personas for your ideal employees and figure out where they spend their time.

With so many people taking their job search mobile, it’s important to make sure your job posts are optimized for mobile screens. Make sure they’re easy to scroll through, can be read quickly, and that the call-to-action (in this case, “apply”) is obvious. Beyond making your site friendly to mobile users, consider other ways you can connect with potential applicants. For example, sending out text alerts to former candidates and subscribers when a new position opens, or notifying them of a job fair you’ll be attending in their area.

One of the more favored aspects of mobile recruiting among candidates who are currently employed is the ability to connect with recruiters via text message. It only takes a few seconds to read and respond, so candidates can stay informed and respond quickly during work hours without stepping outside or hiding in an empty conference room.

Showcasing Your Employer Brand

LinkedIn isn’t the only social media site job seekers use to research potential employers. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and even Snapchat are all being used as a way to showcase employer brands. Considering 55-91 percent of smartphone users are on social media, it’s important that your company have a presence in that space. The aforementioned Pew survey found that 35 percent of social media users have used social media to look for a job.

One way employers are showcasing their brand for mobile job-seekers is by aligning their social media pages with mobile career sites. For example, their careers page is nicely aligned with their Facebook page; job seekers can use Facebook to see pictures of corporate offices, videos of employee testimonials, and links to current openings, all from a mobile phone. You may also want to consider a mobile-optimized blog on your career site that includes highlights of certain jobs, what it’s like living your city, and some of the fun things going on around the office.

Building a Better Applicant Experience

As you combine your brand with mobile technology, make sure your pages can easily be read on smaller, mobile device screens, including smartphones and tablets of any operating system. Build an online application process that is seamless, easy to read, and doesn’t take too long. Try to integrate your career site and your applicant tracking system (ATS), and if you don’t already, seek out an ATS that is mobile-friendly. Mobile access will help your team communicate better and keep track of the hiring process from any location.

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If you’re hesitant to embrace mobile recruiting, consider the fact that your competition already has. Showcasing your company in the best light possible and connecting with candidates as quickly as you can could be the difference between hiring top talent and losing talent to other employers.

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2 Comments

Thank you for the article, Jessica. Although the keynote here is the importance of adapting recruitment-related content to mobile devices. But mobile recruiting can be a lot more than that.
Imagine a mobile app that resembles a CRM, but for recruiters and candidates. It can allow not only applying and messaging, but sending/assessing test tasks, scheduling interviews or even holding them via the app itself.
Picture a mobile tool that will assist a recruiter during an interview instead of a mere notepad and a pen. Apps can have ready-made questionnaire forms with questions (that only need a tick or an emoji to be graded by an interviewer) as well as a database of situational judgement tests divided into separate competency-categories.
Even after a candidate is hired, an enterprise mobile app can support HR with onboarding features. So if designed properly, mobile tech can contribute to HR a lot more than convenient display of the web content.